ON THE TOPIC OF WEATHER ODDITIES

Written by: Bob Metcalfe

Since our weather pattern is so benign and could be described in a few short words, I wanted to keep the blog topic on weather oddities, in-line with those super cool round ice shapes from the lake.

I personally think that "ball lightning" is one of the coolest of the weather oddities. The picture above was supposedly taken by a student in Nagano, Japan in 1987. In short, ball lighting is almost more fable than anything. It has been described going back hundreds of years in a range of ways. Basically, the reports suggest that an electric sphere, varying from pea size to several meters, floats, moves, and lasts much longer than the instantaneous lightning strikes we are used to.

One of the most recent, semi-believable stories of a ball-lightning occurrence was in Sweden in 1994, when a ball of lightning passed through a closed window, which left a 5cm hole in the wall. It was witnessed by residents and recorded on a lightning tracking system in the area.

Scientists have also tried to re-create ball lighting, as well as provide theoretical basis for it. Whether or not its true, I don't know, but its still a pretty cool idea nonetheless.